The charity explained on its Facebook page that this was a phishing scam, in an attempt to gather information including addresses, dates of birth and credit card details under the guise of early registration for VIP tickets.

I’m not sure if they’re being selective. And we can be as upset as we are that they would attack a charity, but they do. And they may be in a country far away where they don’t know who we are particularly,” Calder said.

Tickets sold by Full House Lottery fund life-changing programs that include neo-natal intensive care, advanced trauma surgery and critical brain care.

The charity lottery supports the University Hospital Foundation and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation.

Cyber security expert David Papp believes scammers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in their approach.

“Making sure you’re running the updated software, making sure you can even get some – what they call – white hat hackers to do some penetration testing on your own website to see if they can compromise it,” he offered.

While preventative measures exist, Papp cautions: “Most website on the internet are very vulnerable. In fact, you couldn’t even say that anything is 100 per cent secure out there. There’s nothing sacred.”

One step he has recommended before is having a second credit card with a low limit, specifically for online transactions. If a security breach occurs, thieves would not have the opportunity to embark on a large-scale shopping spree with a card used to pay utilities and other bills.

As for Full House Lottery, they said they are continuing to monitor their site very closely.

“We really hope that they will continue to support us because we’ve got some truly important causes and things that are life-changing for patients at the Alex and the University Hospital.”

Proceeds from this year’s lottery will go towards an advanced CT scanner that will help with cancer detection, as well as a stroke ambulance.